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Tuesday, 29 March 2016

Daredevil vs. Punisher: Means and Ends by David Lapham Review

The Punisher is targeting mobsters - nothing new there - but, for no reason, Daredevil decides he’s had enough of Frank’s shenanigans and decides to fight him. Welcome to Daredevil vs. Punisher, the stinkiest David Lapham comic ever! This isn’t just two characters brawling - though there’s plenny of that - but it’s also two ideologies battling: Daredevil’s non-lethal approach to crime-fighting, using the legal system to deal justice to criminals; and The Punisher, who shoots mobsters with guns. Never seen anyone contrast the two before...

So what does Lapham have to say about their styles? Nothing original or thoughtful. Punisher’s approach is flawed. Ok - and? Nope, that’s it! Great, six issues of emptiness. Lapham tries filling space with an extremely dull subplot about a young man who looks up to Punisher for dealing with some mobsters shaking down his pop which inevitably goes south for Lapham’s “Punisher is wrong” story to work, but that’s it.

Daredevil and Punisher fight each other, they fight mobsters, some C-list villains show up, lordy was I fighting the yawns on this one! And even though I’m more of a Punisher fan than a Daredevil one, I know Frank’s methods are highly questionable and that Matt’s, and the rest of the Marvel Universe’s for that matter, are better in every way - it’s weird that it even needs to be iterated at all.

I love Lapham’s Stray Bullets series, those comics are modern masterpieces, but this Daredevil vs. Punisher book was contrived, boring rubbish. Not even close to being a good story for either character, I recommend giving this one a wide berth.